Christian mission in Alaska dates back to around 1794; it might have been a little before this time due to the Russian fur trade, but it was in 1794 when the first Russian Orthodox missionaries came. The spread of Christianity in Alaska continued to spread over the years. Alaska Mission for Christ is an organization that leads many mission teams in different villages of Alaska today. Before Christianity came to Alaska, Shamanism was a huge part of the Native Alaskan culture. This paper will discuss Shamanism and its impact, the start of Christian missions in Alaska, as well as, Alaska Mission for Christ and its work with Christian Mission today. Before Christianity was introduced to Alaska, the natives believed and practiced Shamanism. …show more content…
In 1794, the first Russian Orthodox missionaries came to Alaska to begin further sharing Christianity to the natives. “Many of the Orthodox missionaries defended Alaska Native people. The tsar in St. Petersburg had always prohibited the poor treatment of Natives, but many fur traders ignored his orders.” Of the missionaries who defended the natives, “none [were] more important [than] Ioann Veniaminov, later named Bishop Innocent, the first Orthodox bishop in Alaska” (Alaska Humanities Forum). Veniaminov worked to translate the Russian Liturgical into the vernacular of the people and continued to learn about their culture, he also helped out with giving vaccinations when there was a smallpox epidemic. Veniaminov cared for the natives and took care of them and learned their culture and language instead of forcing his upon them. In 1870, a Presbyterian missionary came to Alaska. This missionary’s name was Sheldon Jackson and not only shared Christianity with the natives, but was also heavily involved in their educational programs. “Jackson had no problem in mixing religion with education when it came to establishing churches in Alaska,” converting the natives and starting schools. “Jackson actively discouraged the use of indigenous languages, traditional cultures and spiritualties” (Andersen). Jackson is a complete 180 compared to Veniaminov. “Missionaries were paid from government educational funds to run their schools, while the goal of their teaching was not only to educate but to evangelize.” Even though Jackson’s actions did not seem the best, “the effects of [his] allocations to Protestant missionary work is [still] evident by thriving Protestant churches of different kinds in villages relatively close together” (Andersen). These were two main groups in the beginning of the spread of Christianity in
Throughout the stories told in both Mohawk Saint and The Unredeemed Captive, the unintended consequences of attempting to convert the American Indians to Christianity are powerful players in the unfolding events. When these Christian groups arrived in the New World, they came armed with the word of God that they wished to share among a group of people that have never before encountered the concept of Christianity. While eventually these relationships improved and Christians and American Indians began to have closer contact, there were still results from the conversion process that no one could have expected when the progress had started. In both of these stories, the unintended consequences of the encounters between Christian religious and
The Canadian Inuit were a domestic, tribal, egalitarian society in the 19th century. And some cultural changes occurred; making the Inuit adapt and become more aware of other resources they could get hold of, for gathering and hunting for food. In the 19th Century, the Europeans discovered the Inuit culture and this provided new resources for the Inuit to gain an easier way to gather and hunt for food. But because of the European influence, the Inuit’s culture changed to adapt with European Individuals living in their land, and European resources that had been made access to them. By this cultural change in the 19th century there was “an increased diversity in the social structure and material culture of the Labrador Inuit society” (Auger, 1993:27). The Labrador Inuit was a significant Inuit Society to have an ethnographical research made to understand a little bit more to; how the Inuit was affected and how the food process was changed. It will also be discussed the significant ideas and techniques that the Inuit used to gather and hunt for resources.
The theme of spirituality takes place in many novels that we have read this semester. Natives has used spiritual guidance as a means of connecting with their past and honoring their ancestors. To Natives, spirits have always played an important role in their culture and everyday lives. When Natives were forced to convert to Christianity and over time have their beliefs sucked out of them, the spiritual connection was broken as generations passed. One novel that particularly spoke to me on this subject was Monkey Beach, by Eden Robinson. The main character, Lisa, is struggling to fins herself after being blessed with the gift of being a shaman. In this novel, the author exploits how the European or western “white” culture has destroyed the
Indigenous religions exist in every climate around the world and exhibit a wide range of differences in their stories, language, customs, and views of the afterlife. Within indigenous communities, religion, social behavior, art, and music are so intertwined that their religion is a significant part of their culture and virtually inseparable from it. These religions originally developed and thrived in isolation from one another and are some of the earliest examples of religious practice and belief. The modern world; however, has taken its toll on these groups and many of their stories, customs, and beliefs have been lost to, or replaced by, those brought in as a result of popular culture and the missionary work of Christians and Muslims.
Another characteristic of an indigenous religion deals with the emphasis placed on the spiritual specialists. The general consensus is that anyone can have personal or direct access to spirits or that which is unseen, yet felt (democratized shamanism). There is no special requirement in most indigenous systems that stipulate ‘who’ can commune or interact with spirits, however, as a general rule, many feel that it is best to leave interactions with spirits to those that have been taught or trained through ritual or purification of some sort. Most indigenous religions are not written down, but based on oral
Donovan speaks about the missionaries who came to East Africa after they were taken into slavery. The missionaries thought it would be a good idea to come over and buy the people to save them from harsh lives, so they bought as many as they could. Doing this they also taught them all of their customs and where forced into Christianity instead of their beliefs ways and cultures. This struck off a
For example, in the 1690’s Jesuit priests introduced the Virgin Mary to a group of Indians where they emphasized the already existing notion of chastity, therefore assimilating Christianity with an already present concept. Other non-forcible means of spreading Christianity also existed. Puritan minister, John Eliot, translated the Bible into the local Indian language to gain converts. In these regards, the spread of Christianity fundamentally dismantled the inherent culture of Native Americans.
The Inuit are very spiritual people and they do not believe in a lot of the same things we do. They believe in something called Animism, all living and nonliving things have a spirit. When someone or something dies they believe that things spirit goes to the spiritual world. They only people powerful enough to talk or communicate with these spirits are religious leaders, Shamans or “Angakoks”. The way these religious leader speak with them is through dances or charms. They wear masks and clothes of an animal because they believe it helps them to communicate with them better. Not all spirits are good ones, when the weather was bad or there was an illness going around they believed it to be a displeased spirit, but the Inuit used guidelines to try to make the spirit happy. There was five rules that need to be followed in order to please the spirits, 1) women are not allowed to sew caribou skins on the inside of there igloo on sea ice in the winter. 2) Inuit can not eat sea mammal and land mammal at the same meal. 3) A knife used to kill whales had to wrapped in sealskin, not caribou skin. 4) After killing a seal melted snow had to dripped into its mouth to quench the spirit's thirst. 5) The Inuit saved the bladder of the hunted because they believed that’s where the spirit was found inside. One of the most important spirits was Sedna, The Goddess of the Sea. She provided them with food from the sea, which made the Inuit most happy.
spirituality. Aboriginal spirituality is passed on orally by elders through myths and rituals. Without knowledge of their traditional languages, young people could not learn about the spiritual beliefs of their people. This spirituality was all encompassing, affecting not only their thoughts about the spirit world but also their knowledge of places, plants and animals and traditional skills such as fishing, trapping, and tanning (Blair et al., 2002, p. 96). As Steckley and Cummins have pointed out, without access to the elders’ knowledge of nature, young people lost access to the beliefs and practices their people had developed over thousands of years (2001, p. 17). Therefore, the loss of language led to the loss of traditional spiritual beliefs and
The indigenous tribes of North America have much in common with the indigenous religions of Africa but there are also many differences in the belief of an afterlife, supreme deity, and the daily practices of each. Today many of these lesser known religions are hardly ever studied but they exist and are still practiced all over North America and Africa. We will discuss how these religions differ in their main beliefs and practices, and we will also discuss how they correlate with one another on smaller aspects.
When most western people think about Native American or African religions there is a certain stigma that comes with the topic. This is in part because there is a lot of misinformation in the world about Native American and African religions. When most westerners think of African religions they think of voodoo and black magic. Likewise, the view of Native American religions is still looked at through the lens of the pilgrims who wrote about Native Americans as being savages and less than human. These stereotypes were all formed from a lack of accurate information. African and Native American religions are very similar. It is difficult to find a lot of accurate information on African and Native American indigenous religions because of the lack of written history but there is a lot of oral history that has been passed down from generation to generation. From this information, it is clear that Native American and African religions have many more similarities than they do differences. Three of these similarities will be discussed in this paper. The first topic of discussion is the similarity between African and Native American people when it comes to their perception of the spirit world. Following this topic are the similarities between Native American and African views on the afterlife and finally, the diversity of beliefs within African and Native American religions.
Missionary expansion throughout the centuries has taken a hard, often violent road. The expansion of Christianity begins with the adherents of Jesus Christ and ended with the premature demise of many of the disciples. In the centuries following the disciples, many missionaries were faced with percussion and death as the gospel was proclaimed. As missionary expansion occurs throughout the centuries, often times facing trial and difficulty, the question comes up; is the capital cost of missionary expansion worth the monetary value? This paper will highlight many trials that have been faced by three missionaries in particular and explain often by the words of these missionaries why the enormous cost of missionary expansion is worth the cost. The thesis of this paper is: everyone is called to preach the gospel; the calling of the missionary is called to live by faith even when facing difficulty.
Most believe that Native American live deep within temperate forests, but one tribe lives within a much colder and frigid climate. This tribe is known as the Inuits. Inuit means “The Real People” (Santella 5). A group of Inuits traveled to the Americas from Asia, and they went towards the north pole. They eventually settled in the Arctic regions and began to thrive (7). They are widely dispersed throughout the Siberian, Alaskan, Canadian, and Greenland regions (6). The Inuits have an interesting history, lifestyle, and religion.
Most colonists that came in the early 1600’s were Christians, a religion that has very specific rules and rigid regulations that must be followed to be a “saved” person destined for a paradisiacal after life. Within these restrictions were the directions to “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). It seems clear that from the first the Christian religion was telling the colonists to “help” the natives by making them conform to the culture of the colonists and destroying their own. This was always done with a sense of Native American natural inferiority. In most cases, the Native Americans were not told the entire nature of their conversion. A Jesuit described the tactics used in converting Native Americans, “The outward splendor with which we endeavor to surround the Ceremonies of the Church…with a magnificence surpassing anything that the eyes of our savages have ever beheld – all these things produce an impression on their minds” (Le pays reneverse by denys delage 168). For those truly religious souls, coming to the New World meant a chance to bring salvation and Christianity to new
Most indigenous cultures had a profound respect for their environment. They believed that their relationship with nature was very sacred, they believed the earth needed to be treated with dignity and reverence, they believed in harmony with their surroundings. Speaking of indigenous religions, Lewis (1995) wrote,